Lawsuit: Sex Blogs a Breach of Privacy?

[Ian David]

Wednesday, 29 November 2006
Lawsuit: Sex Blogs a Breach of Privacy?
Topic: legal

Jessica_cutler One of Jessica Cutler's ex-lovers is suing her for blogging in explicit detail about their affair. Jessica, you might remember, is the young lady who set Washington atwitter two years ago when the blog in which she detailed every aspect of her sex life suddenly hit the front page. Naturally, the idea that a 20-something woman was sleeping with five or six men in rotation, some of whom were married, shocked our virgin society; Jessica was punished with a lucrative book deal and the men she was tupping discovered that if you would suffer terribly if everyone knew you were doing something, you might want to resist doing it. I know that's very very difficult to do -- but her lovers were in rather visible professional positions, which brings with it an additional overhead of watching one's behavior.



Anyway. He's not alleging libel or contesting that her account of their brief but apparently raunchy affair isn't true. Instead the suit is for breach of privacy, claiming the blog:

constituted a gross invasion of his privacy, subjecting him to humiliation and anguish beyond that which any reasonable person should be expected to bear in a decent and civilized society.” He claims Cutler’s blog was an “intentional infliction of emotional distress.”

He filed the suit last year and according to the MSNBC article linked above, a trial date has yet to be set.

But it's been on my mind because of its potential to set a precedent. You're naive if you think a young woman isn't going to talk to her friends -- and a wider circle than you might think -- about her sex life, so if your affair is a 'secret' you really need to consider whether you can trust her and all her friends to keep their purty mouths shut (right, Mr. Clinton?). Now that everyone can publish, the question mirrors the ones that Napster raised years ago can half a million sharers a month be considered "just a circle of friends"?

More:
http://blog.wired.com/sex/2006/11/lawsuit_sex_blo.html

[Montauk6]

1. The moral of the story, I guess: Don't date anyone with a website or blog or mySpace account.

[Do you want some fun]

2. All women have blogs

Which would rule out almost all young women.
Having an affair is wrong, so I guess he should just suit himself.

Oh look, I have a blog. Then you shouldn't date me ;)
www.thesexutopia.blogg.se

[Tripod]

3. You get what is coming.

There are very few secrets in life. Usually it is the perpetrator that speaks.